Federal election 2016: parties play blame game over late train

The fate of the Coalition’s most marginal seat, ­Petrie, could be determined by the bungling of a rail link.

Petrie MP Luke Howarth says voters will punish Labor over the Moreton Bay link.

The fate of the Coalition’s most marginal seat, the knife-edge Queensland battleground of ­Petrie, could be determined by the bungling of the $1 billion Moreton Bay Rail Link rollout.

The Palaszczuk government’s announcement that the opening of the long-awaited railway line would be delayed due to a failed signalling system sparked an all-out spin war yesterday as both major parties blamed the other for the stuff-up. Locals have lobbied for a rail line to the city from Redcliffe, north of Brisbane, for more than a century. The Gillard and Bligh Labor governments stumped up cash in 2010.

Petrie MP Luke Howarth, a former pest controller who won the seat from Labor by just 871 votes in 2013, yesterday told The Australian his constituents would punish Labor at the ballot box.

“The rail line was due to be open in August and now it’s running behind schedule,” Mr Howarth said. “This state Labor government has been asleep at the wheel. And just a week ago, (federal Labor transport spokesman) Anthony Albanese was at the Kippa-Ring train station in Petrie saying only Labor could deliver ­infrastructure.

“Well, it turns out state Labor can’t deliver anything. They couldn’t organise a chook raffle.”

Kippa-Ring is where the 12.6km train line is due to start.

Mr Howarth said his electorate was home to four of the new railway stations built as part of the rail project; the other two are in neighbouring Dickson, held by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton. Mr Howarth holds Petrie by just 0.6 per cent. Mr Dutton is more comfortable on 6.8 per cent.

Transport is a key issue in the working-class electorate of Petrie, which is seen as a must-win for Labor leader Bill Shorten.

Mr Albanese yesterday wasted no time in blaming the Coalition government for the rail failure, pointing to a cut of $159 million from its contribution to the project in the 2014 budget.

“At the time, I warned that skimping on the rail line would reduce its quality,” Mr Albanese said. “Indeed, at a media conference at Kippa-Ring on January 14, 2015, I said: ‘That will mean it is an ­inferior project. You can’t cut that sort of money out without winding the project back.’.”

State Labor Transport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe has promised an independent audit into the project. He blamed the signalling system bought by the Newman LNP government for the failure.

Labor’s candidate for Petrie is Jacqui Pedersen, a community development officer for the local council who has regularly hosted Mr Shorten in the bellwether seat this year. She blamed her ­opponent for supporting the federal funding cut, which she said had resulted in “serious safety ­issues with the signalling system”.